Candace cried so much because Frederick Swartz had been laid in the tomb, that mother was pleased to have her cheer up, even enough to go snake hunting.
That afternoon Mehitabel Heasty had come to visit May, so she went along, and I followed.

They poked around the driftwood at the floodgate behind the barn, and were giving up the place.

Candace had crossed the creek and was coming back, and May had started, when she saw a tiny little one and chased it.

We didn't know then that it was a good thing to have snakes to eat moles, field mice, and other pests that bother your crops; the Bible had no mercy on them at all, so we were not saving our snakes; and anyway we had more than we needed, while some of them were too big to be safe to keep, and a few poison as could be.

May began to bruise the serpent, when out of the driftwood where they hadn't found anything came its mammy, a great big blacksnake, maddest you ever saw, with its pappy right after her, mad as ever too.